WASHINGTON, D.C. – A national standard for egg production is needed to prevent the industry from being thrown into chaos and confusion by differing state standards, Saranac egg producer Greg Herbruck told a U.S. Senate committee Thursday.

“The future for our industry, on the current path, is a patchwork of state animal welfare laws that are inconsistent, contradictory and ultimately unworkable,” the executive vice president of Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Herbruck, whose family-owned company produces 60 percent of Michigan’s eggs from its 6 million laying hens, said state laws being adopted govern not only local production, but the production of eggs being shipped into a state.

“No matter what we as producers do voluntarily, we can’t avoid the threat of future ballot initiatives – and 24 states have them – so we are at the mercy of the next activist group that wants to mandate cage-free production in our state,” Herbruck said.

Michigan approved similar restrictions recently, Herbruck said. “In just a few years, egg farms in Michigan will be required to provide more than twice as much space for each bird as the current industry standard,” he said.

Other states could require farmers to only produce cage-free eggs, said Herbruck, one of three egg producers to testify on behalf of the United Egg Producers, a national trade association representing egg producers.

The egg producers are pushing for a nationwide bill that would phase in larger cage standards and labeling requirements that meet with the approval of the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“This bill is the best solution for hen welfare, food safety and consumer choice,” Herbruck said. “It is essential to the Michigan egg industry that this legislation be passed as quickly as possible to keep us in business.”

"This is a practical, fair-minded deal that solves a real problem for the egg industry," said the bill's sponsor, U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif.

Groups representing beef and pork industries have come out against Feinstein's bill, and a companion bill in the House sponsored by Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., arguing that they might be the next target of federal legislation.
-- The Associated Press contributed to this story